Latest / Kitco MINING / Liberty Gold Rules Out a Sale Strategy as Black Pine Advances | Jon Gilligan

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Liberty Gold Rules Out a Sale Strategy as Black Pine Advances | Jon Gilligan · Kitco MINING

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Kitco Mining on-site coverage of the Precious Metal Summit is presented by Newcore Gold.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: Idaho's next gold mine.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome to Kitco Mining with me, Paul Harris, here at the 2026 Precious Metal Summit in Beaver Creek, Colorado.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: Joining me now is John Gilligan, president and CEO of Liberty Gold.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: John, welcome to Kitco.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, mate.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Pleasure to be here.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: This is going to be a really exciting conversation for me because you've just put out a feasibility study for your Black Pine Oxide Gold project in Idaho.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: That was just a few short days ago.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: You're looking at a 411 million US dollar initial CapEx development for a 16-year mine life.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: Initially, it will produce more than 200,000 ounces a year.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: John, it's a landmark to get behind you.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: You did it ahead of schedule.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: What were you most pleased about with the feasibility study?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: For me, I think it was the progression from the feasibility pre-feasibility study that we that we published in October 24.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: We did a year's drilling, we grew the resource, and in the engineering for the feasibility, we were able to pull some of the levers that we left on the table and pre-feasibility, improve the mine plan, operation operationalize the plan so that we had a study that was executable, buildable, both from a mining point of view, but also from the actual construction point of view.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we were able to demonstrate to the market to our investors the the size and scale of this asset.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: We were at 133,000, 135,000 ounces a year production of pre-fees.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: We knew we could do better than that.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: We put a million ounces onto the resource and we ended up with 177,000 ounces a year average life of mine production.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's a significant asset, and we're we're really pleased that we were able to articulate that through the study.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: I want to, before we continue with our conversation, um John, I want to sort of take a step back to the moment of time when you were appointed as president and CEO because one of the first things you did was to effect a change of strategy, a change of direction at the country.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: I think it'd be fair to say before you took the reins, the company's strategy was to, you know, discover a load of ounces and hopefully someone will come and buy you.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: And you very much said, no, we can build this, we can build it well, we can make a lot of my money doing so.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: And the timing of that has been very, very fortuitous.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: You the change of direction going into a sort of development mindset, into a rising gold market, and also as mining is really becoming a key economic sector again in the United States.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, look, I think um a rising tide floats all boats.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh we we were lucky in the sense of of taking this asset at a pivotal point in the metals price and in metals recognition of mining's role in in societal development and growth.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I think our timing was was fortuitous.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um we did execute a pivot from the company, as you quite rightly mentioned, June last year.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um I joined four years prior to that as as as um chief operating officer, and I joined because I recognized that this this is a mine that Liberty could build.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I spent sort of four years behind the scenes discussing strategy and what we were going to do with this.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: And when Cal decided it was time to retire, um the board gave me the mandate to let's go see, let's go build this.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um and my one of my first actions was to was to bring in a really high-powered technical team.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um we have a we have a very strongly experienced um the BP of projects, um, supported by two very strong technical guys on the mining and metallurgy side and on the resource side.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: And it's those three that have, I think, have really helped consolidate us as a credible developer.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's not an easy pivot, Paul, as you probably know.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Exploration skills require a certain a certain effort and commitment.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: Development and building is is quite another way.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: But I think I've built two mines in my career.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: The guys who are with us now have built mines, they've built parts of mines, they've worked at operating mines.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we've now got that credibility to be able to take this through the next step.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: How how challenging was it building out that team, John?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: Because um a lot of people in the industry talk about the dearth of talent, the challenge recruiting people in key positions, and obviously you're at that key phase where you're drawing plans, you're drafting plans that you'll then look to execute.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: So having key people that know what they're doing to be able to do both of those things is is fundamental.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, look, look, it was not easy.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: We we interviewed a lot of people.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um we found that there's a certain style of of senior technical in in individual in the industry, um, probably working for a major, doing really good work, but has always had an inkling to say what what's it like in the juniors and what happens in that space, and and how can I contribute, you know, uh to my my sort of grain of sand to building something new.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that that kind of spark is what I found in in the guys we hired.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's not easy to find, um, but when you find it and you put two or three people together and you you create this, you create this aura, you create this sort of teamwork ultimately, but it's but it's really good fun.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Really good fun.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got the feasibility study.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um what what are the next steps?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: So we've already started detailed engineering.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: So from a feasibility study, which of course is a snapshot in time at a certain price of gold, a certain price of commodities, the next step is to take those designs in um at feasibility and then re-engineer them to actual drawing um drawings issued for construction.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: So you a drawing that you can then go ahead and build a building on or or a heap leech.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: That piece of engineering is something in the order of 50 to 60,000 hours of engineering for the detailed design, and we've kicked that off, and we expect that to be complete by about the third quarter next year.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: That will and and what what's happening in the meantime, we're going through the permitting process, and I'm sure we can talk about that in a moment.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we've got a bit of time to get us through that engineering piece and be ready, literally, with all the drawings complete before we start construction.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: That gives us two things.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, it gives us a definitive cost estimate, because we've engineered every bolt, every nut, every washer.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: We know what it is, we know what it looks like and how much it costs.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: And secondly, from a point of view of being able to schedule construction, I know exactly what I'm building, so I can actually then do a very detailed execution schedule for construction.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: So that de-risks that whole schedule piece in construction.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: Very, very few projects in the mining industry start the build at 100% um detailed engineering.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we are in a very strong position from a risk perspective.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: And given that we're um a single asset junior, given that we are a new team, I think that's a very appropriate thing to do.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it really, to me, lends confidence that we can do this.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, John.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: Now you you've you've benefited from a few things, as as we've mentioned, the the the rise in the gold price, the the change in attitude towards mining in the United States, but there are things that are perhaps challenging that weren't existent uh a couple of years ago uh in the world.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: And in the US and tariffs is one of those.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: The the crisis in the Gulf of Iran, um, the Strait of Hormuz and its impact on various different things from costs of specific items to logistics of being able to get items.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: To what extent or not are you able to sort of embrace that, mitigate that, so that it isn't an issue for you going forward?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: So when we did the when we did the feasibility study, we went out for quotes, and in the case where the quote was uh an imported item, it comes with the tariff.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so we've kind of built in that the current tariff situation into um into our cost basis, and we've also into contingency put some element of where's that going to go?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: And we no one knows where it's going to go, but we've built some additional contingency around that specific piece.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: With regards to the whole oil price, um the second highest cost, operating cost for the mine is diesel.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: So the diesel price you pick has a direct, um, obviously a direct link to the operating cost and therefore to your profitability.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: So we've taken a fairly modest and a fairly conservative view of diesel in terms of a price.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Clearly, we're not going to be consuming diesel in any meaningful amount until 28, so that's 18 months away.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: One hopes that that that particular circumstance is resolved by then for everyone's sake.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um but you know, perhaps there'll be another one.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: So uh we do take a conservative view on on diesel, and certainly as we move towards um uh a financial decision on the comp on the on the going ahead with the asset, things like hedging diesel price during payback, hedging explosives prices to take out some of that risk is a is an option that we will seriously consider.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: Are you able to factor in sort of flexibility to be the flexibility to be opportunistic?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: For example, President Trump has shown that um he'll put tariffs in today on something and then you'll change his mind and do something, take them away again tomorrow, and then you know Mark Carney will open his mouth and okay, they're doubled the the following day.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: So are you able to factor in to be able to buy things and get things delivered opportunistically?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: So Yeah, look, I I I think we are.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: We've already started putting down orders on long lead items.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: We've we've put down an order on the on the main power transformer, so that's now somewhat locked in.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um and we're working through the list of other long-lead items, structural steel, piping, pumps, um, some of the um the heating equipment that you need in the ADR plant.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're starting to sort of knock those down and and get ourselves build slots at the at the appropriate manufacturer.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: And that actually gives us some some inherent protection around that sort of wildly swinging tariffs.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: Clearly, we're trying to buy Americans.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: We're in this is an American asset, um, and American products are excellent.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: We have no issues at all.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so where we can buy American we do, which of course helps, um, and where we think an import is the right thing to do, we go with that and then mitigate that tariff risk.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, you mentioned permitting, so let's talk a little bit about that.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: The Black Pine has been accepted into the Fast 41 uh permitting um system or regime.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, one of the key things that does for you, it gives you a definitive timeline for when the permitting process is due to be completed.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: Talk me through what what are the steps there and what's the your your timeline.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so thank you for that question.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh a really important part of obviously building a new mine is getting the permits, and and most people see permitting as the major material risk to to a project that's non-technical above surface.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I think I think that's very appropriate.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: We were accepted as a covered project under FAST 41 in January this year, and that means full concierge service, where we have a we have dedicated sort of project managers under FAST 41 that are providing oversight to the whole federal processing system, uh permitting system.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um we issued an updated timetable for the um permit uh process, the NEPA process in March of this year.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: And that timetable gives us a firm date of January the 5th, 2028, to receive the final record of decision.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: Prior to that, there are a whole series of milestones to get to that point.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: The one that's coming up next would be the release of the draft EIS, that's the environmental impact statement.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: That is really the document that details what are the what are the impacts of this action, in our case, obviously building a mine, what happens, what are the mitigating strategies, and what's the net result.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that then is what ultimately gets approved, and that becomes your operating manual, if you want to think of it in that sense.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: So that comes out in in February next year.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: There's a public review period directly after that, and then six months later, we issue the final EIS, the final environmental impact statement, and at that time you receive your draft notice of decision, record of decision, and then 90 days later you see the final.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: So that's sort of sequence from from here to January the the 9th.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: Once you have your final record of decision, there's some administrative, bit of an administrative process around bonding, and you end up receiving what's called a notice to proceed.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: And that is the yeah, you can turn the doses on and away you go.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, that that's uh the first week of January, that's a very specific timeline to it.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it is.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: Some sort of employees are not gonna have a very wonderful New Year's celebration.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: Well, maybe we'll come in early.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: That would be a nice Christmas present, wouldn't it?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um whilst that uh process is running, are you able to do early works?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: And if so, what what what sort of things can you do?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we can do all engineering, we can do, we can do all all orders, all vendor engineering, we can do vendor construction, so anything off-site can can be can be constructed.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um within the project boundary, and there's a very defined project boundary that is the permitting limit, so we're uh the permit lets you operate inside that, and obviously without the permit, you can't operate inside that.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: But we do have some private land that we own um in and around the site, and we can sort of use that as a sort of initial staging ahead of being able to go onto the land.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: So we can, for example, um build some offices, we could build a construction office, we could build a laydown area where where items that we've pre-purchased can could be stored on site under under secure conditions, and then once we get permits, we're then able to lift them up and and put them in place.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: So there is quite a bit you can do.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um one has to be respectful of the permitting process, um, and and clearly we don't want to preempt the decision, it's the government's decision where they come and how they decide.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: But there are certain, you know, there's a conversation around wanting to get this project up and running.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Assuming we get approved, um, the economic benefits for the local community are significant, and and in general, we've had some really positive support to get this built.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: So so it's a conversation, um, but we will be doing um, we will plan to be doing some uh some of those early works.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: So one of the elements we haven't talked about yet is financing.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: You've got a$411 million initial capex to finance.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: What are your thoughts there, both in terms of the timing of that and what your financial package um, if you could pick and choose, what would your financial package look like?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: So to start any kind of meaningful financing conversation, you need a feasibility study.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: So we've had some sort of guideline discussions over the last couple of years, really, with some of the major debt providers, um, some some street some of the royalty companies or streaming companies, um, and a number of people have expressed sort of interest in supporting the company.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the amount of capital that we need at 411 is a is a is a sort of almost a Goldilocks size.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's not too big, so the the risk quotient for any one supplier is kind of not too bad.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's also big enough to be meaningful so that so that it's actually uh there's a there's a benefit and uh and and a return from deploying that kind of capital.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um wheat and precious metals own the only royalty that there is on black pine um at half percent, but they also have a rofa on um any other um extreme type product.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're in discussions with them about what would that mean, what would a stream look like, uh, and they've thus far expressed a lot of interest in talking to us, and so those conversations I think are just starting to kick off.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, in terms of um a debt component, we we've we've selected a number of sort of very well respected, sort of down the line, if you like, well-known um uh debt providers, and we're going to have a focused discussion with them over the next months uh about what would it what would debt look like, what are the what are the conditions that it comes with.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, clearly one one has a lot of covenants typically when you when you raise money that way.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so those conversations I think are ongoing.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: And we would seek to um by the middle of next year, we would seek to have clarity on our project finance package with respect to equity.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um equity is an interesting one.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: I mean the markets, as you know now, uh the there's a lot of money floating around the markets.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well you hit a 52-week all-time high just.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: We did, we did indeed.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: So that would perhaps suggest that it's a good time to go.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: But we are very, very conscious of dilution.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, equity is expensive now in terms of your PNAV, it's highly dilutive.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's a very convenient source of capital, it's quite expensive.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I think it it it has a role in a in a in a in a consolidated finance package for for Black Pine.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: We don't we haven't yet hit upon a number or or a when.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, so we've got nine months to figure that out.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um back to the sort of debt components, what's the I don't have the figures in front of me, so I apologize for that, John.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: But you know what what's the payback period on the project at let's say 3,500 gold and spot.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh two years.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: Spots a year and two months, I think.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, that's very attractive, isn't it?
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh indeed.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you've got a 16-year mine life, so if something goes horribly wrong, you've got enough time for a metal price recovery, if that was the risk, to you know, to produce and keep going.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: So it's very attractive from that from a debt point of view.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: So any covenants that are restrictive, they're not going to be restrictive for that long.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly, exactly.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I you know that puts us in an interesting position as we negotiate terms and and uh you're right.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: That the the prospect of a rapid payback is very interesting to many of these groups.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I I fully understand your comments about dilution for the equity component.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um so let me sort leads me on to the next question.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: You you listed on the TSX.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: Why aren't you listed, why don't you have a US big board listing?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: You're a gold development project in the United States, the the administration wants mining.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um you'd seem to have the perfect storm of factors that would be appealing for New York Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange America or Nasdaq listing.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_02: Is that going to happen?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting question.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Very interesting question.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: So clearly we've thought about it, we've looked into it.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, to list on the on the US stock exchange is not cheap.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's a significant amount of money, and of course, it carries ongoing fairly significant costs.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: What do you get for that?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: As you rightly say, you get exposure to liquidity in the US markets.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: We are a US story, and I I think I'm very comfortable saying it is very logical one day for us to list on the stock exchange in either the NISE or the Nasdaq.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: That makes perfect sense to me.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: The question for me is when?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: What's the optimum time?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: If we were going to raise equity as part of the part of the project uh financing package, would you list so that you could raise the equity that you needed to build would be through that listing?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: Or would you say no, I'm gonna do equity in the Canadian markets and I'll do a listing down the road at some other time, perhaps associated with construction.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: So we're having those internal discussions.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um I see you want me to list.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: Well, no, no.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: I I I would just have thought if you're able to go doing your US listing and that money in your communication to those investors, that money is going to be used to build the mine.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: That would seem to be, again, a good marriage of ideas.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: I don't disagree with that.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but we we're we're aware of that.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: We haven't made any decisions.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: We certainly looked into it.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: And um the other piece is um we we wouldn't have done it prior to where we are now because it takes quite a lot of management time.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's a four to six month process and it's quite rigorous in terms of documentation.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so as we're in as we're in feasibility uh and and the company was sort of you know setting itself up to this next step, it wasn't really appropriate.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: Perhaps as we as we now consolidate that and go into this engineering phase, perhaps that gives us a little more time to think about that we could actually practically do it.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: So that those I think are under considerations, and clearly um we we have extensive discussions at the board about this because it's uh everyone's got an opinion.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um in line of that, you know, when I was trying to set up this interview, I originally wanted to do it at the mining forum America's, which is next week, but you said no.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh presumably that's because you've got a full board of uh suite of meetings next week with institutions and maybe um corporates.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe the odd corporate knocking around.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, maybe.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so what's happening on that front?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: Will it be you that builds this uh black black line?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: I joined this company five years ago to build it.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: I've been very clear with everyone that I want to build it.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: My team is excited to build it, um, and we are focused on doing the right things from a owner operator, you know, act like an owner, to take us through that path.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: We're not out there courting input from anybody.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: We obviously have um uh a strategic partner in Centera at 9.9, and we interact with them through the technical committee.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we're not out looking for a partner right now, we're not out looking to be taken out.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um equally, I am not naive.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: As CEO, my responsibility is to is to is to be out looking out for shareholders' interests.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um and if um if a if uh an offer comes along that makes sense, um then we will go through the appropriate process and we'll go to the board, and if it's the right offer, it'll we'll take it to shareholders.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: Not what I want.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um and in fact, perhaps a further comment, when I look at our you know, we our share price appreciation over the last year, as the market's sort of given us some credit for taking that transition well and having a strong team and doing a good feasibility study.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think we are well placed as a management team, if not uniquely placed, to take this through the engineering and the build and start the mine.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the share price appreciation through that process is significantly better for shareholders than a typical developer technically.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Out premium today?
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, John, I would say I wouldn't think that it is.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: I I I did an analysis earlier this week, and it's it's very clear that uh that is that that would be the case.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm glad I'm glad we agree.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um let's talk uh finish up talking about something we haven't mentioned so far.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's still more potential upside at Black Pine.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you've got a 50,000 meter drilling program underway.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_02: Tell what tell us about that.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: So this year was last year was all about building the feasibility resource.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: We put a million ounces into resource, and then that underpinned the reserve that we just came out with.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: This year has been largely about de-risking early production.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: So we've had um drills drilling in the first that the shell for about the first two years of two to three years of production.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: We've drilled that from indicated to measured.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: We're about halfway through that program, and that allows us then to declare a proven reserve for the first three years of production.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: So that de-risks ore grade, um, ore volumes, metallurgical performance, allows us to do some short range planning before we we um start blasting.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's been the key focus.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: In addition to that, we've been doing some compliance drilling, making sure that we know what's what's underneath the infrastructure, the the um surface rock storage facilities.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: We've been doing a little bit of step-out drilling around known mineralization where where we had a resource shell and we've got mineralization sticking out of the resource cell, so we've so we've kind of cleaned that up.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: And we've also um started to think about broader picture.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um what what what's the exploration potential and where might we go with that down the road?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and to illustrate the opportunity here, um we are we have a block of land that's 40 square kilometers, excuse me, that's permitted for exploration.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: We've actually done a pretty good job of exploring somewhere in the order of 24 to 25.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got another 15 square kilometres of land that really hasn't had our attention.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then outside of that 40, our our land package from a you know from um leases goes out to 70 square kilometers.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got a 30 square kilometer ring, if you like, outside of the main focus area that's not even permitted for exploration.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: So those those the 16 and then the 30, they will be the ground that we look at over the next number of years progressively.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be we'll have a focused, detailed program, um, relatively modest because our we, you know, we our focus really here is build it, but we'll be kind of moving the needle down the line uh progressively over time, and we're also having some thoughts about what's the regional picture look like now and and where where might that take us.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I have a team working on that at this time.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_02: Excellent.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_02: Well, congratulations on the feasibility.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: You've got some exciting uh months ahead of you.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: I think uh it's a pleasure to share this with you.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: John Gilligan, thank you very much for joining me today.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's a pleasure, thanks very much.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: And we have a lot more to come from the 2026 Precious Metal Summit here in Beaver Creek, so stay tuned and hit that subscribe button.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Paul Harris, and this is Kitco Mining.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Kitco Mining on site coverage of the Precious Metal Summit is presented by New Core Gold.